Left unity in the Philippines

April 20, 1994
Issue 

The mass left split in the Philippines Communist Party (CPP) which has rejected the CPP leadership's Maoist program and declared itself a democratic socialist tendency, has shaken up the entire Philippines left. Supporters of hardline Maoist and CPP founder Jose Maria Sison have criticised the democratic socialist forces for splitting the party, accusing them of weakening the left. But others in the Philippine left say the potential for broader left unity has never been so good, and point to the successful broad coalition of left, centrist and conservative forces (including the Catholic Church hierarchy), which recently mobilised as the Roll Back Movement and prevented the Ramos government from raising the price of oil.

Tony Cabardo, vice-president of Sanlakas, a federation of progressive mass organisations; Sonny Melencio, vice-president of Makabayan, a mass socialist organisation, and the international officer of the United Workers for Change (BMP), a new trade union alliance; and Ronald Llamas, chairperson of BISIG, the Union of the Advancement of Socialist Thought and Action, spoke to Green Left Weekly's Pip Hunter at the recent International Green Left Conference about the prospects for left regroupment and renewal in the Philippines.

Tony Cabardo: There is clearly a split within the CPP. The regional party units that declared autonomy [Manila Rizal, Panay and Negros in the Visayas, Central and Western Mindanao] had urged the Central Committee to hold a unity congress. There has been no congress yet, and the next order of the day is for the opposition to unite.

The unity of the opposition is very important in determining how to proceed. The point is, we must try to talk, we must try to argue, we must try to debate among ourselves, because we are not uniting just for unity's sake.

We unite on the basis of principles, so we have to thrash out the differences and attain a substantial unity. From there it must be developmental. Unity should be given a chance by all opposition forces, because until now, we have not yet sat and discussed. It's another thing if we have discussed and have not arrived at a unity. So be it. But we must try. At least we can say we tried.

The next point is that even in our coalition work, we have to graduate beyond our fears. We have to move beyond the thinking "because I'm big", or "this organisation is big" or "this organisation is small". The point is, what is your agenda? It must be clear. What is your program? What role could a particular group play depending on its program and capability?

There must be a maturity among all organisations. Yes, there must be tolerance, but we have not compromised the basic demand. In the same way, there are limits to tolerance in the left movement. There must be an attitude of open-mindedness. But tolerance to ideas unacceptable to other groups, I think is a different thing.

There must be some understanding of what is acceptable now, of what level of unity the left could arrive at at a certain point in time. We are on a process of left renewal and we must not expect too much, neither must we slacken our vigilance towards this goal of unity.

The point is that we have common ground: we identify as the left. Therefore, it is good enough that we can debate on the basis of our identification as left. We are all for socialism, but we have different ideas of what socialism is. It should not be a stumbling block, but at the same time, since we are on a renewal, it must be a developing process of debate, of discussion.

Sonny Melencio: Various socialist forces in the Philippines are working more closely and coming up with concrete political programs of action and unity around several issues. With regard to what's happening with the CPP, I would like to see a unified party which would be able to tackle all the changes and issues after the collapse in the so-called socialist countries. With regard to the socialist project, we need the formation of a party that would be more democratic than what we have now.

I would like to see political clarity among the various groups taking up the question of the crisis within the CPP. Every organisation is trying to grapple with these questions now and come up with clear ideas and program.

Ronald Llamas: We have to go through a process of dialectical ideological discussion and debate beyond slogans, beyond name-calling, within our respective organisations and within the broad progressive movement. A lot of the answers can be found not only within ourselves, but with each other, in terms of alternative blueprints and strategies. While all of us are unfolding ideologically, politically, organisationally, in the immediate future we have to give each other some space.

One of the problems in the Philippines progressive movement is pre-judgment. We must be a little tolerant of each other, because we cannot be equal as we are not the same size, the same membership, the same speed politically, the same clarity ideologically. At particular moments, some will be slower, some will be faster, some will be a lot more clear, some less clear.

Without compromising our fundamentals, there are certain parameters, but within those broad parameters we have to be a little tolerant of each other and create some space.

While progressive organisations are still unfolding politically, organisationally and ideologically, it's very hard to have clear ideological unity immediately, or even in the medium term. In the immediate as well as the longer term, we have to participate in joint activities which may not immediately seize power, but which will create the dynamic towards that.

At the moment, we have no strategic unity in terms of a movement for self-management from below. Self-management is still separated from the struggle for socialism, or progressive politics. Usually, it's the NGOs that take on some elements of the self-management strategy. But [the left] really has to integrate this into the political struggle.

When we started BISIG [in 1986], we had anarchists, Trotskyists, social democrats, populists and some stalinists (all of which have now left), and we were able to consolidate some sort of ideological unity. We are relatively small compared to the national democrats, but I think it can be done. It not only takes political will, it takes a little generosity.

Tony Cabardo: The groups which have declared autonomy from the CPP are rethinking, and trying to come up with a counter-thesis and program, as are other left groups, like BISIG and Pandayan [left social democrats]. While this is a painful process, the point is that there is the commitment from all the left groups in the Philippines for a renewal. At least that is an assurance that this progressive movement will move forward.

I also hope that the Sison group will come to realise and accept this political reality that they should unite with other political groups, including those who have split with them.

Ronald Llamas: There are other forces, the civil society forces, which shouldn't be forgotten. The political blocs tend to concentrate on the political revolution. It's important, but we have to get past the traditional concept that the taking of state power is the be-all and end-all of revolution. It's a very important moment in the process of social transformation, but it's still a moment. It will help accelerate the social revolution, but we cannot reduce everything to that moment of the taking of power.

We have to be less condescending with other groups which are more interested in changing social and property relations, values and attitudes, much more slowly than us. Perhaps we can complement each other rather than trying to rival each other. Social movements that concentrate on changing relationships from below, within the family, the neighbourhood, etc are important. We need that not only as foundation but also to check our utilitarian tendencies.

Sonny Melencio: What could be the proper approach with regard to unity? It is clear that we have ideological differences, although we have ideological unity too in several areas. A good project could be to focus on some activities to help us clarify our differences and points of unity.

While many are still not clear about their program, a newspaper, in which discussion could be undertaken by several groups, could be useful. All the groups in Sanlakas could debate these things, and this would help because we would learn about what we are thinking. Perhaps political clarity could come faster that way.

Secondly, there are problems right now with regard to tactics. This is always a question which can be discussed quite openly, because tactics are quite specific to certain situations. A newspaper would not only clarify theoretical questions, but also questions of how to proceed.

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